It’s the sort of track that you want to revisit immediately and often. ‘Oliver Square’ is one of the most thrilling beginnings to an album I’ve heard this year, a first-born whose excellence continually impeded my attempts to listen to the remainder of its parent record, Breaking Kayfabe. The first cut is deep indeed, synth stabs and severs, chopping rhythms rough and ready, creating a maelstrom of sound. Imposing order upon this musical chaos theory is Rollie Pemberton, aka Cadence Weapon, a precocious 21-year-old Canadian rapper. Cadence breaks the binds of convention, eschewing sloppy hip-hop clichés; his lyrical exhortations are as fresh and sharp as shrapnel, but as measured as the scales of justice.

Having ventured beyond the early exhilaration of ‘Oliver Square’ I found that, remarkably, what followed was almost its equal. ‘Sharks’ is a riot of bitter observation and braggadocio, Cadence’s lyrical prowess to the fore, phrases contorted over a rack of electronic screams. Menace is the watchword of ‘Grim Fandango’, its shimmering Sergio Leone chords segueing into a fit of obsessive scratching, ever building towards a tremulous peak. On ‘Black Hand’ Cadence announces that he has a “way with words”, that he is “done wit’ dead riddims”, making us acknowledge the truth of his observations, flexing his mastery of flow, the phrasing as pointed and lethal as a screwdriver, the music as vivid as freshly spilt blood.

Perhaps the most lyrically straight track here, ‘Diamond Cutter’ updates the ancient tale of the femme fatale. Elsewhere we’re presented with a jigsaw of brutal putdowns, puffed-up preening, pavement philosophy, social satire and autobiographical fragments. At no point does Cadence make things easy for us: Breaking Kayfabe is a record that demands and deserves undivided attention, its creator fashioning a brain-searing patchwork of ragged rap, electronic flourishes and truncated rhythms. ‘Fathom’ and ‘Vicarious’ are particularly disorientating, the former a fractured Neptunes, the latter Mos Def filtered through the cosmic electronica of Four Tet.

Increasingly courted by the hip-hop mainstream and with a second album scheduled for a March 2008 release, Cadence will soon have a choice to make: “Like Bob Dylan on the fence / Will I sell out or buy in?” On the basis of the ever exhilarating Breaking Kayfabe, I’m hoping he keeps it “heavy mental”.